Pest management of soybean: Sustainable production techniques

Abstract

Diverse pests cause losses in agriculture. Among them, insects are noted for inhabiting all the environments and for quickly adapting to the environmental adversities. From one million insects, around 10 % of them cause some kind of damage in agriculture, representing severe or even total losses, depending on the culture. The agricultural production losses reach up to 37 %, which 13 % are caused by insects. In agroecosystems of high economic expansion, such as soy in Brazil, any factor that interferes in the reduction of production becomes of great importance. However, it is necessary to control the populations in economical levels, considering that their total elimination may cause the appearance of secondary pests. In this context, the specific knowledge of the interaction of each species in the culture is needed, as well as the development of strategies in management to maintain the maximum of natural balance in the cultivated area. Despite the existence of Integrate Pest Management (IPM) in Brazil for three decades, only 35 % of the cultivated areas adopt the pest management. On the other areas, the control is performed through regular and non-planed applications of pesticides, which has been causing technical, economical, environmental, and toxicological problems. This chapter aims to bring a bibliographic survey of the economical importance of lepidopterans and hemipterans, considered pests in the soy culture in Brazil; to characterize the advancements of techniques of control and the utilization of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses); and also to make a perspective of transgenic soy in biotechnology programs utilized to perform culture management in Brazil.